Starch and vegetable-oil extracting machine



Novio l 1,5 SHORTS sfrAncn AND VEGETBLE4 oIL EXTRACTINQ MACHINE Filed Nov. 29, 1922 Hullulll IN VE N TOR WMMM n Nov. 18' 19124- Filed Nov. 429 1929l 3 Sheets-Sinaai 2 BVM @den Zub va fron/ufr NGV. 189

R. SHORTS STARCH AND VEGETABLE OIL EXTRACTING MACHINE 3 sheets-snaai Filed Nov. 29 1922 KOMM@ Afrox/vn Patented Nov. 18, 1924 ROBERT SHORTS, 0F SAN JOSE, COSTA RICA.

STARCI-I AND VEGETABLE-OIL EXTRACTING MACHINE.

Application filed November 29, 1922.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that l, ROBERT SHORTS, a British subject (Canadian), resident of the city of San Jose, in the Republic of Costa Rica, have invented a new and usefullimprovement in Starch and Vegetable-Oil Extracting Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a device to facilitate the extraction of starch from yucca (cassava) and other starch bearing tubers, also to facilitate the'ex'traction of oil from cocoanuts and other oil bearing nuts. The object is accomplished by first reducing the starch bearing tubers and the oil bearing nuts to a pulp and then by draining off by various processes the starch or oil substance from the pulp.

From observation and experiment with machines for making starch, I have learned that when the starch bearing tubers are being ground on a grating wheel that is flushed with water, the resulting product is in the form of scrapings rather than meal,

- that the force required to scrape the tubers breaks up their cellular tissues and literally squeezes the juice out of them into the water (that is on the wheel) which immediately takes it up and holds it in a milk like solut-ion. Likewise, I have observed that the inst-ant the scrapings are released from thel wheel a reaction takes place in them and there is a tendency to absorb back as much liquid as has been squeezed out of them. Therefore, the 4slightest delay in separating the milky water from the meal, or scrapings, is detrimental. My invention provides a means for preventing the absorption by the scrapings, of the starch that has been squeezed out of them. This is accomplished by instantly straining the pulp in the manner and by use of the means herein described. Referring to the accompanying` drawings, Fig. l is a side elevation ofthe machine.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the machine. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section of it taken on the line 3 3 Fig. 5.

Fig. 4 is a sectional plan view showing particularly the strainer and is taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is an end elevation of the machine. Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 6 6 of Fig. l.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary sectional view. More particularly @represents a grating wheel with an axle running through the cen- Serial No. 663,809.

ter mounted on a frame and having an arm or lever attached to the axle for the purpose of revolving it. The upper portion of the wheel is enclosed in a hopper, b, in which the tubers (or the nuts) are placed when about to be ground on the wheel. Inside of the hopper, but independent of it, is a feed bar, or compressor, o, which is hinged at the back of the machine, CZ, and is intended to move freely up and down in the hopper on the roots, holding them against the grating wheel and exerting the pressure of its own weight to which is added the pressure of an adjustable spring, e, situated at the lower end of the feed bar. The bar is tangent to the face ofthe wheel. Thus, when the tuber (or the nut) is fed on to the face of the wheel, through the hopper, it is carried forward as the grating wheel is re vo-lved clockwise until it is stopped by a bridge in the hopper across the face of the wheel. At t-he same time the feed bar rises to'receive it and presses it against the grater until it is entirely reduced to fine meal, or scrapings. During this process the surface of the grinding wheel is iushed with pure water supplied as follows: A tank, f, is located on the topof the frame (or elsewhere), and by means of a control valve, g, and a tube, it, leading out of the tank, the water may be conveyed from the tank to a small auxiliary tank or sprinkling box, z', located near enough to the grinding wheel to sprinkle its surface with water. The sprinkling box has two outlets, consisting of' small holes extending in twolines crosswise to the ma chine; one outlet is in the end of the box, the water passing through which flushes the surface of the grinding wheel, and through the other outlet water pours down upon a strainer as indicated in Fig. 3 forthe purpose of giving the pulp a final washing. The main object of the sprinkling box, as a whole, is to enable the operator to supply the machine at the earliest possible moment after grinding with the requisite quantity of water t-o insure the effectual washing of the starch out of the meal.

When the water from the sprinkling box flushes the grinding wheel, which is already thinly covered with the semiliquid pulp, this supply of water added to that already in the pulp contributes t0 the cleansing of the pulp and completes the first process of washing the starch out of the meal. Then after the Wheel revolves further, the whole Ilo lit)

milk like semiliquid mass ilis thrown off on to the upper end of an inclined vibrating double strainer, It', which is situated lower down on the frame and is in a 4position to receive the falling pulp. Most of the water drains out of the meal immediately. The strainer, with its housing, in dimension corresponds approximately with the inside measurements of the frame of the machine, and is secured to the frame atan incline, the upper end of it being just below the bottoni of the wheel, so 'a-sto receive the whole discharge from the wheel. Thestrainer is of special construction and is in fact Vtwo long narrow strainers in one, one being immediately above. 'the other about one and one-half inches apart. lt is in effect a double suspension strainer, 'the sligl'it deflection of which provides Ya kind of shallow `trough, down ywhich the meal travels under a shower of "water from the sprinkling box aided by 'a succession 'of violent jolts, :produced by Ymeans hereinafter described, until the ineal Areaches the lower end of thestrainer'where it falls olf. Meanwhile the milky water which passes" through the two strainers falls on to a dripboard, Z, which receives it and conveys it to the discharge spout, m, from which it may be passed on to a ',settli'ng'tank not shown .in the drawings. The strainer', 7c, consists of a tine cotton cloth (onany suitable fabric) doubled and 'joined together at the edges like a pillow case, and drawn somewhat tightly over a shallow skeleton frame, a, no nails or tacksbeingrequiredto fasten it to the frame. i-rfter the strainer cloth is stretched over the frame, a housing, 0, is fastened toy both'edges by screws in such' a manner as to project alittle beyond the edges and beyond eachV en'diof' the fraine'as a protection forthe delicatestrainer cloth. The lower e'dgesof thehousing"rest on the'dripboard, Z, taking the weight an'dwear volff'the cloth and providing a 'space' between the frame and the dripboard, Z,`for the'cloth to'hang insuspension fromV the edges tl'irougliout its entire llength. lhe top'hall" of the strainer cloth, it may be'o'bserved, also hangs suspended in the same manner from the"top edge of thel frame, thus producing what l call the suspension double "strainer, As the strainer is separate from Aall the'partsl of the machine, it can 'easily be removedl or slipped 'back into position where it automatically locks itself by means ofv a notch, y?, on the `bottom edge of the housing? 'near its lower end and bya check block, g, attached to. the dripboaid. rlhe housing of the strainer, 7c, extends a. little beyondthe discharge spout, ym., and the cloth of Vthe strainer being made lafoot or vso longer ldrops down as av curtainoutside of the discharge spout, m, and soiprevents any of the waste from getting into the discharge spout front of the machine.

and damaging ythestarch. Whilethe greater portion of the water falling down on to the upper strainer passes almost immediately to the lower one and through this to the dripboard, the lighter' drippings having a tendencyto cling to the under-side of both strainers and to pass oli' with the waste. To prevent `this a narrow strip of cloth, r, about an inch Wide is sewn on to the bottom sides of both strainers near the lower end just overthe center of the discharge spout, m, something like the fiounce on a dress. and 'allowed to hang down. These'flounces, or stripsbf cloth, obstruct the passage of the drippings and divertthem into the discharge spout with Athe rest of the Amilky water. Beneath the strainer `is the dripboard, Z," it is thefsame jwidth `as" the" strainer but 'not quite as long. 'The`strainer,7c, rests onits housing ontlre-Jtop of the drip-board, and, being a'lit'tle'lon'ger than this dripboard,'ov`erhangs itat the lowerend. The dripboardis set vat the same incline as the strainer, immediately under it 'and flush with the frontend of the'machine. suspended 'on hinged stirrups, 3, and caused to vibrate endwise rapidly by means of a right angley rodJ, pivoted at its angle. The lower end ofthijs lrod is yattached to a lug, u, on Vthe dripboard, Z, and the other end of the'rod comes in broken Contact with a 'series ofpins, e, spaced Ona circle on the side of the `grinding wheel and near its center. Thus 'as the grinding wheel is turned, the'lower' end of the rod is forced outwardly and the 'dripboard isA carried outwardly by it. This compresses ra"spring,'fw, that rests against cleat,`m,on the bottomside of the 'dripboard and yagainst a board, y, across the Vhen the forward movement of theygrinding"wheel breaks contact'with the contiguous end-of the right angle rod, t, the 'f spring, fw, reacts on the 4"dripboa'rd, together with the y"strainen that rests ontop of it, Vand both strainer and dripboard shoot back against the rear end of the frame, 'causing a jolt that shakes up "and loosens the pulp'on the strainer,there-- bym'akin'g'easier the washing out of the starch.

'The object 'of the dripboard is to receive the'water that passes through the strainer and to convey it to the discharge spout, m. from' wh'ifchthe' water is received into a` set- -tling tank 'not shown in the drawings,

After the starch is "settled and the water "inl thel tankhas been 'drawn ofi', `a byproduct 'will 'be found lyingv loosely on thesurface flt'is Fil) loo

it oil' with water. This done, the starch will be found in a glistening White mass o n the bottom. The process of extracting oil Jfrom cocoanuts and other oil bearing nuts is the same as that for making starch, until the milky water is discharged into the settling tank. At this point the process differs in that the oily substance gradually separates from the water and rises like bubbles to the top, forming a thick cream which can be skimmed off and, when brought to a boiling heat, is transformed from a cream into the highest quality of transparent cocoanut oil, leaving as a sediment a very small residue ot' sc-rapings or waste.

Having thus described my invention, what I now claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patentl is as follows:

l. In a device of the character described, the combination of a hopper for receiving the material to be ground, means for grindingl the material, a strainer positioned below the grinding Wheel to receive the material after being ground, and a tank so positioned as to simultaneously sup-ply water through its side to the material immediately after being ground and through its bottom to the material while being strained.

In a device of the character described, the combination of a hopper for receiving` the material to be ground, means for grinding the material, a strainer positioned below the grinding` wheel to receive the material after being ground, and a tank positioned above the axis of the grinding wheel and adjacent said wheel, said tank supplying water through a side wall to the material immediately after being ground and through its bottom Wall to the material while being strained.

3. In a device of the character described, the combination of a hopper for receiving the material to be ground, means for grinding the material, a strainer positioned below the grinding Wheel to receive the material after being ground, means for vibrating the strainer and a tank positioned adjacent the grinding wheel, said tank supplying Water through a side Wall to the material immediately after being ground and through its lower wall to the material While being strained.

4. In a device of the character described, the combination of a grinding wheel for grinding the material, an inclined strainer located under and below the grinding Wheel, a tank located above the aXis of the grinding Wheel and adjacent the periphery thereof, perforations in the side of the tank adjacent the grinding Wheel for supplying water to the material immediately after being ground and perforations in the bottom ot the tank to supply Water While the material is being strained.

This specification signed the 17th of November, 1922.

ROBERT SHORTS. 

